Not sure if everyone knows him. But he is comparable to Kante.

Idrissa Gueye, 27 years old (#17 Everton, CDM). 1m74, very very similar to Kante.

This season we have seen another great product in EPL. I dont know if overrating him now is the right moment but I find it surprise that he beats Kante to be the best CDM in EPL statistically.

He played less, duel won more, intercepted just 1 less, had higher tackle rates.

Of course his influences can't be compared to Kante, Im saying he is comparable and worth to be recognized.

You guys know him?

I don't want to take away anything from him, but it's laughable that people, and football fans in particular, still don't understand that statistics only show a part of the picture.

@Juan Also, it's easy to pull of amazing stats when you play for a mid-table team. Kante is playing like that with a stacked squad of champions.

I've watched him a few times for Senegal but I didn't watch Everton much this season. Still I am not sure he would be comparable to Kante. If anybody watched him regularly this season, I'd want to know how he was.

I watched a bunch of Everton games this season. He was an excellent ball-winner, and easily outplayed Schneiderlin when he arrived. I'd disagree with Madridista's point quite strongly as well, but that's really immaterial for this discussion.

@Juan: yes, indeed. That's why I keep repeating "statistically" to be sure people wont make the wrong impression

@Sun Feel free to share your opinion bro, I'd love to see your prospective on this.

@Madridsta11: on this matter, I thought the opposite would be true? I seriously can't compare whether a bad team or good team would help player at his position statistically.

FOr example I can say: when your teammates know what to do to press, then you are more likely to be in a good position to have a good tackles, thus he should have HIGH statistic. Or I can say, his teammates share a lot of jobs, so to pull such a high statistic is a lot harder... either way sounds right to me.

@Madridista @tuan @Sun: That's an interesting topic for a thread. Best example is probably the ever-lasting Lampard/Gerrard debate..

Maybe that's true, I kinda see what you're saying. The problem is, I also follow basketabll, in which case the opposite of what you said is true. The more quality players you have, the less the team becomes dependent on your workload. This kinda carried over to soccer for me when it shouldn't because the sports are different and different metrics apply.

@Madridista

In basketball that's quite true offensively, and whenever I see someone put up more than 40-odd points my first thought is "what's the shooting percentage" which is usually terrible cause the guy was a massive ballhog. However, in basketball it is quite untrue defensively. Basketball and hockey are the only sports I can think of off the top of my head where all members on the playing surface have to take a very active defensive role.

Moving this back to soccer though, I'd like to make a notion about possession and the role of a CDM. I looked at this a bit a few weeks ago when I brought up that Ander Herrera had nearly universally better statistics than Kante this season, but ended up not arguing the point because a) I didn't think Herrera was better and b) the argument wasn't that strong - but I suppose I can use it here.

The general idea is that if a CM/CDM is playing on a better team, that team will have more possession. That team will then have less chances for a CDM to break up attacks, because less attacks are happening. This is a pretty logical thought process, and it is what I would assume is what Madridista is thinking.

But this is not always the case. The ball has to be in a very direct area for a CDM to have to take any real action (although note that one could theoretically argue good CDM position would negate any need for potential intervention). Specifically, in the middle of the field in front of the backline (e.g. being carried forward by a CAM), or in the case any of the backline has been beaten, the CDM would cover that member and be given the chance to intervene. Therefore, possession and control of the game is irrelevant, it's the amount of direct attacking that actually matters. Anyone who ever watched United under LVG can really easily see the difference. Keep in mind that over 70% of possession in a game is not being directed towards the oppositions goal, or even in their half. Passing between the defenders, wingers, and even deep-lying midfielders, does not bring a CDM into the game at all, and if it does, said CDM is not doing their job.

This is crucial for the first thing I noticed when I looked at the statistics of Kante and Gueye, because not only does Gueye have more successful tackles, he attempted less of them. Based on that fact that he played two less games than Kante, it makes sense he attempted less tackles, but it makes no sense whatsoever that he has more successful ones. If this second stat is because Everton gets attacked more, than why does he have less attempted overall tackles? They don't jive with logic.

The best answer I can provide comes from what I've seen when I watch Chelsea games (any Chelsea fan feel free to correct me on this one). When Chelsea lose possession, which isn't often, the most effective route of attack is to shove it right down Cahill/Luiz's throat. This results in one of two outcomes, which are a) Kante successfully tracks back and breaks up the attack, or b) Kante fails due to position or bad tackling and forces the defenders to actually make the stop themselves. Note that Chelsea's defenders are quite good and usually capable, but nevertheless the vast majority of goals I've seen Chelsea concede this season have come in this manner. Attacking Chelsea down the wings is suicide, their fullbacks are too good and their wide midfielders track back very well. This puts Kante under a lot of pressure in the limited time the opposition has the ball, and to his credit, he holds up quite well.

This is in pretty heavy contrast to what I see when I watched Everton. The first thing to note is that Everton plays with 2 CDM's, something I don't see Chelsea do on the regular because Fabregas can never be asked to actually defend and Matic didn't play a ton. This means that the CDM's are more free to go grab a tackle when they see one. Ironically, I'm very familiar with the positioning required when this is being done, because it's exactly how I play FIFA. This means two things a) Gueye has less pressure on him and less opportunity to make tackles and b) when he does make a tackle it's a high percentage tackle. Both these players are very good at what they do, but they're being asked to do two different things. High pressure in limited attack, or low pressure in extended attack. Hard to say which is more difficult than the other. Kante's requires precision two or three times a game, whereas Gueye has to be alert for at least 70+ minutes a game - but with less direct intervention.

I don't think Gueye was better, let's get that out of the way - but I do think that the line that makes Kante better than others at his position is very thin this season, nothing at all like last season where he blew them all out of the park. This was why I was annoyed that Mahrez won the POTY last season, and even more annoyed when Kante won it this season - I didn't think either of them should've won.

But meh.

Well, Kanté was brilliant at a small team like Caen.
He was brilliant in a side which won the EPL without a star-studded squad in Leicester.
And now he's brilliant in a star-studded Chelsea team.

I don't think anyone can be compared to him in the CDM position. Neither in the EPL, nor in the world right now.

Koeman looks like he has a Schneiderlin 2.0 in Gueye.

Comparing Gueye's statistics this season to Schneiderlin's statistics in 2014/15 (his last season at Southampton), Guaye absolutely outclassed Morgan in nearly every category shown in your photo up top too.

The only argument some could say is that Gueye had 33 appearances while Morgan had 26 back then, but still I wouldn't think Schneiderlin would be able to outclass him anyway. However, what I'm trying to address is that there is clearly an obvious pattern with the way Koeman utilizes his CDMs in the game, and if I had to imagine Kante being under Koeman's management, I'd reckon his stats would go off the roof.

Overrated . If Manchester is thinkinh about buying him then they will be buying another Feliani but short one ..

No, absolutely not. Gueye would never see to fit into our system and plus, we have Tuanzebe to fill in the gap.

@Sun Good read bro. +1

@Sunflash Holy potato, you just blew my mind with that analysis, just make me realize how thoughtless I am about football. XD

I'll say this: he was not that great in big games, unlike Kante who dominated the big games. Besides that, I have no issues with the stats...

@Sun: Just some small corrections:

the most effective route of attack is to shove it right down Cahill/Luiz's throat.

The attacking plan of the majority of our opponents consisted of targetting Marcos Alonso, probably having to do with his average defensive skills and lack of speed + agility. Also he's always had Gary Cahill next to him, who's always up for a dumb mistake.

The first thing to note is that Everton plays with 2 CDM's, something I don't see Chelsea do on the regular because Fabregas can never be asked to actually defend and Matic didn't play a ton

We've basically played every game with 2 CDM's this season. Matic has (nearly) twice the amount of minutes under his belt compared to Fabregas (2694 vs 1357). Also Fabregas has done fairly well defensively whenever he's been asked to play next to either one of Matic or Kanté. He's definitely improved a lot under this aspect. But I guess that the fact that most of his minutes have come in a 3-5-2 where both Matic and Kanté played behind him does hint at a lack of trust on Conte's part regarding a predominantly defensive role for Fabregas.

Agree with everything else though.

@Sun: +1. Great stuffs bro

@IHEART: Tuanzebeeee! Although, why not. I would love to have such a combat-ter in the mid for Pogba to shine. :D

@Juan

Thanks. Didn't realize Matic played that much, in nearly every Chelsea game I watched I don't remember him being there. Guess I need my head examined.